Sweet Oriental Dream
by Montale

Sweet Oriental Dream is probably the most satisfying and alluring loukoum scent I’ve come across so far! This gourmand is simply a delicious and intoxicating creation – I just can’t stop smelling my wrists!

The honey, vanilla, almonds, rose and cherries are so well blended that I can't really detect any rose. Yes, the opening is extremely sweet but this eventually settles down (and the drydown is very sexy).

The jury’s still out as to whether or not I would be able to get away with wearing this (as it smells more feminine than unisex), but a decant is at least in order. Personally, this is a major improvement on Serge Lutens’ interpretation of loukoum (i.e. less powdery and with greater longevity).

Utterly superb!

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[Original submission date: 25 May 2008]

encroachment.overpowering to me,so i know its the same to someone im beside.thick and heavy on the sweetness

After reading the reviews, I thought Sweet Oriental Dream would be very sweet with a lot of sillage. But on my skin the sweetness is tempered a lot by the smell of nuts. I can smell the rose only in the topnotes. The smell of nuts is there right into the ambery drydown. I sampled it in the winter and found it was not too sweet or overpowering, but it probably will be in warmer weather. I've never smelled nuts as a note in a fragrance before, so this makes Sweet Oriental Dream quite a unique smell for me. I like it and give it a thumbs up, but I won't be buying a bottle of it. It's a good scent, but not the kind of scent that I could pull of.

Way too sweet scent. Its ridicilously sweet. Almondy loukhom drenched in sugar, over and over again. It lacks the compelling cherry pipe tobacco accord which can be found in Mecheri`s or Serge Luten`s loukhoms.

Sweet Oriental Dream (I actually like the name!) is just a full, sugary blast in your face. I am a sweet tooth myself, but this makes a stabbing pain in my teeth even when I think about it. Can be very cloying, be extremely easy on the trigger.

Not suitable for men, but naturally that is just my opinion.

I can't add to the great reviews of the notes in the reviews below me. To me, Sweet Oriental Dream is one of the most unique vanilla/gourmands I've experienced. What makes it unique is the balance between sweet notes and nut/floral notes. There's something going underneath the vanilla that keeps me smelling my wrist constantly. After the opening this isn't sweet at all, and even though it's slightly on the feminine side of unisex, I wouldn't think twice about wearing it.

This brings to mind the old saying: "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." I'm giggling as I write this because I have a story to help me plead my case for this scent. A smitten man recently spoiled me by taking me to Brennan's in New Orleans for the famous breakfast which included their trademark dessert "Bananas Foster" Since the dessert is prepared by your waiter right at the side of your table, you get to see the point where he douses the ingredients (ripe bananas, butter, brown sugar, etc.) with brandy (or was it rum?) and sets it aflame before pouring the piping hot mixture over French vanilla ice cream and serving you. We smiled with delight and satisfaction as we savored each spoonful (I'm going off on a romance novel tangent here, but this is all true). And as if that wasn't enough, when we finished, they brought us (compliments of the house) a single helping of the bread pudding with praline sauce and two spoons. When I first applied Sweet Oriental Dream, that day at Brennan's and all the wonderful smells created by those desserts immediately came to mind, so anybody who says that scents don't trigger memories is either lying or in denial. I KNOW that when he smells this he's going to think of that day too. This is a scent has a playful humor to it. Some scents should be vehicles for triggering memories and creating new olfactory experiences and Sweet Oriental Dream definitely does that. And, if it does nothing else it sends the signal that YOU'RE good enough to eat.